Chlorospingus speculiferus Lawrence

Frahnert, Sylke, Roman, Rafaela Aguilera, Eckhoff, Pascal & Wiley, James W., 2015, Juan Cristobal Gundlach's collections of Puerto Rican birds with special regard to types, Zoosystematics and Evolution 91 (2), pp. 177-189 : 184

Taxon classification Animalia Passeriformes Thraupidae

Chlorospingus speculiferus Lawrence

Chlorospingus speculiferus Lawrence 1875: 383.

Now.

Nesospingus speculiferus ( Lawrence 1875): 383. See Cory (1889: 86).

Type series.

Lawrence (1875) described this species and attributed its discovery to Gundlach, but Gundlach (1878b) corrected this, stating that the specimen was collected by Tomás Blanco y González in Puerto Rico. Gundlach most probably received the specimen from Blanco in 1868. He later transferred it to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C. (today USNM) and there Gundlach was given as collector. As Lawrence (1875) wrote "Type in National Museum, Washington", the type series consists of only one specimen which is the only available specimen of that species at the USNM "collected by Gundlach" and is therefore the holotype. An additional specimen of this species from the Gundlach collection is housed at the ZMB (ZMB 24887), but it was collected by Stahl between 1878 and 1880 and was sent directly from Gundlach to Berlin. It is therefore not part of the type series. LeCroy (2012) noted that a further specimen at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH 3262) has a type label for Chlorospingus speculiferus . But she did not consider it as a type specimen because it is not dated and Gundlach is not indicated clearly as the collector. We follow this argument. It appears that Gundlach never collected this species himself.

Holotype.

USNM 75331, skin, unsexed, collected by Tomás Blanco y González on Puerto Rico [in the period 1863-1868].

Type locality.

Porto Rico [today Puerto Rico], no further details available.

Remarks.

The specimen was catalogued at the USNM on 18 October 1878, but Lawrence previously wrote in the description in 1875 that the specimen was housed in the National Museum, Washington. We do not know when the specimen arrived at the USNM. It may be that it remained there uncatalogued until the discussion about the type with Gundlach started in 1877. As it is the only specimen of this species collected by “Gundlach” at the USNM, we believe that USNM 75331 should be the type specimen.